The Pacific Palisades and Malibu residents are demanding the city of Los Angeles, claiming that the Department of Water and Power and others could have more to prevent and contain the enormous forest fire that destroyed their homes.
The Plintiffs list, those of 70 years or more, is read as a cast of Hollywood characters, including a holocaust survivor and a former US Navy driver. UU. According to cancer treatment.
In a complaint filed on Monday night, they alleged that the city should have assured that the key deposits were full of water and that all fire hydrants were operational before the Palisades fire.
The Times previously reported that in the period prior to the hell of January 7, the Santa Ynez reservoir I had been empty For months and more than 1,000 hydrants They needed repair. As the fire spread that night, hydrants scores in Pacific Palisades Ran under water.
The complaint also states that the DWP ignored the warnings of urgent wind and maintained its electrical equipment in the energized area, which “contributed to the fires or caused new fires in the burning zone of Palisades.
“All these tasks together make the city, including the DWP, be guilty of the damages that customers have suffered losing their homes and all their valuable possessions,” said Crystal Nix-Hines, a member of Quinn Emanuel, Plainthart, the law firm, the law. “This could have leg prevention.”
A DWP spokeswoman declined to comment on Tuesday afternoon because the city lawyer’s office “had not yet been delivered to the official complaint.”
Several similar cases have been presented in the months since the Palisades fire killed 12 people and destroyed almost 7,000 structures.
Until now, the plaintiffs have only sought compensation for the loss of their property; The city of Los Angeles has immunity against statements about emotional anguish and some other impacts of fire.
The times Reported in February That the DWP approved a three -year contract and $ 10 million with the Mungger law firm, Tolles & Olson to defend the utility against the growing number of demands.
The plaintiffs in the last case, essentially, claim that the city destroyed its property without giving them fair compensation for the loss.
The complaint, filed at the State Superior Court in Los Angeles County, includes several heartbreaking narratives.
A passage describes how Rachel Schwartz, 93, arrived in Detroit with her sister in 1946 after surviving the Holocaust, including the Warsaw Ghetto, three concentration camps and a death march. “
Schwartz moved to Los Angeles in 1960 and bought his house in Pacific Palisades 28 years ago. He lost the house and many invaluable possessions in the fire.
Kenneth and Kristina Peterson were with their two children visiting Hawaii for Kristina’s 60th birthday when the fire exploded. “They saw impotent while the images of their burning community played on television,” according to the complaint.
Ken Peterson, 75, was in treatment for cancer at that time. A former United States Navy pilot whose grandfather and father served in the two world wars, his memories were destroyed in the fire, including a “Marine Praise Medal for a sustained meritorious service, flight suits, pilot license.”
In a brilliant point in the middle of all destruction, a neighbor saved Peterson’s dog before the flames consumed his home, says the demand.
The participation of multiple residents of Malibu, including the Peterson, in the case, unique in the recent wave of cases is.
Malibu is a city separated from Los Angeles, but the plaintiffs claim that the actions and inaction of DWP before the fire broke out contributed to its diffusion to the neighboring coastal enclave.
“The conscious decisions of the city to leave its dry reservoir and its power is simply unforgivable,” said Jeffrey Boazell, another lawyer of the plaintiffs.
